The overall objective of the project is to develop HPLC methods for the measurement of trace metals, primarily through pre-column derivitization of the metals with organic ligands to impart a readily detectable property such as intense U.V. absorption or fluorescence. There were several goals set for the first year. Basically we decided to test two distinct types of ligands for their potential use in HPLC. In a broad sense organic chellating agents for our purposes can be divided into two classes: 1. those which form labile metal complexes, 2. those which form kinetically stable metal complexes. In order not to mislead it must be stated that the metal per se (Cu2 ion vs Fe3 ion) plays a great role in the lability. Chromatographically this is an important issue because if the complex between the metal and ligand undergoes dissociation on the same time scale as the separation rates then very badly tailed and broadened peaks will occur. Most of the common organic ligands with the exception of the dithiocarbamates fall in category 1 (e.g., 8-hydroxyquinoline (8-HQ), pyridylazonaphthol (PAN), pyridylazorescorcinol (PAR) and their derivatives). In contrast derivatives of acetylacetone and substituted acetylacetone fall in the second class. During the past year we set about to determine which types of ligands were best for chromatographic purposes. In addition to the above experimental work the principal investigator undertook some relevant theoretical studies. The main work in this area was the development of the first complete description of the influence that a nonlinear detector has on one's ability to do quantitative analysis by chromatographic methods.